bracing for more...

[Cat]

NOTE: "However, Landeg yesterday ruled out the alternative - the introduction of vaccinations for poultry, a measure already introduced in Holland - as being ineffective."

 

This is the first time I have read this. I kind of suspected it wasn't effective, since it's been tried in the far east and Bird Flu continues to spread there.

 

 

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World braced for huge surge in bird flu cases

 

· 160,000 turkeys slaughtered on farm

· Don't panic over food, plead experts

· Concern at delay in informing Defra

 

Robin McKie and Nick Mathiason

Sunday February 4, 2007

The Observer

 

The number of cases of the deadly bird flu virus is increasing around the world as scientists struggle to combat the disease that is now threatening to jump species and infect humans. The news comes as Britain confirmed its first ever case of H5N1 in a farm in Suffolk. More than 160,000 birds will now be slaughtered as the country's farming industry goes on high alert for more outbreaks.

 

As the authorities responded to the outbreak in Suffolk, local residents questioned why it had taken some 48 hours after the first chicks died last Tuesday for the government's Department of Food and Rural Affairs, Defra, to be informed. But there was also wider concern. Japan and Nigeria have reported a series of cases of the lethal virus, and China, Egypt, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam have also revealed outbreaks in birds and in humans in the past two months. Indonesia began a mass bird cull in the capital city of Jakarta last Wednesday. At least 164 people are now known to have been killed by the disease across the globe.

 

The rapid spread of avian flu can be traced to the fact that the H5N1 virus is mutating as it spreads through birds and a variety of mammals including cats, tigers and pigs, said Robert Webster, a researcher at St Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

Last night British health officials insisted the risk to the public was still negligible. It set in motion a series of emergency measures aimed at halting the spread of the disease among poultry in Britain. All the turkeys on the affected farm at Holton near Lowestoft, the largest poultry centre run by the breeder Bernard Matthews, are now being culled. Yesterday, piles of slaughtered birds were being scooped into open tractor trailers before being removed for incineration.

 

An exclusion zone of three-kilometres (nearly two miles) has been set up around the farm. All poultry in the area are to be kept indoors and tested for the H5N1 virus. A further 10km zone has been established in which all movements of poultry are banned, and last night another 2,090sq km restriction zone was created to isolate poultry from wild birds. Other measures will include a ban on bird shows, poultry markets and pigeon racing. This follows a decision by Defra to revoke the national general licence on bird gatherings.

 

Last night, the National Farmers' Union president, Peter Kendall, said his organisation had warned members to be vigilant. A spokesman for Matthews said his organisation could confirm there had been a case of H5N1 avian influenza at its Holton site. But he added: 'It is important to stress that there is no risk to consumers.'

 

Dr Andrew Landeg, the government's deputy chief veterinary officer, revealed he had called in ornithologists in a bid to understand how wild fowl - now thought to be the most likely source of the Suffolk outbreak - might have carried the virus into one of the 22 turkey breeding sheds at the farm. Officials also needed to know what other areas of the country might now be at risk of outbreaks.

 

Last night, it was revealed that Defra had identified several areas in Britain considered to be at particular risk of picking up H5N1 from infected wild fowl. The farm at Horton was one of them.

 

Avian flu expert Dr Colin Butter of the Institute of Animal Health said it was now crucial that veterinary scientists discover whether the farm was the first place this strain of flu had emerged. It could be that the outbreak was an 'unhappy chance event', or it could indicate a significant level of the disease in wild birds indigenous to the UK, which in turn would make the virus harder to stamp out. Exclusion zones and culling would not be sufficient to contain the virus, Butter added.

 

However, Landeg yesterday ruled out the alternative - the introduction of vaccinations for poultry, a measure already introduced in Holland - as being ineffective.

 

As a result, farmers with free-range flocks may face serious threats to their livelihood. However, one organic poultry producer said moves to house birds permanently indoors would be counter-productive. 'My birds are resistant to the range of diseases that affect conventional flocks because their immune systems have been boosted through living outdoors. I accept that as a new strain of bird flu, special measures may be required in the short-term, but these should not be at the expense of the principles of good husbandry.'

 

However, Landeg yesterday insisted that the disease could be contained. 'There's a good hope, if this is not the first case, we will be able to contain this disease.'

 

It was revealed last night that five people in Indonesia have died from the virus since the beginning of the year while Japan yesterday confirmed its fourth outbreak of H5N1 bird flu this year and Thailand has reported three outbreaks during the past month.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,,2005605,00.html

[Cat]

Pakistan has another outbreak in birds...

 

 

In Pakistan, Mohammad Afzal, Livestock Commissioner at the Ministry of Agriculture, said all the chickens in the flock of about 40 birds at a house in Rawalpindi, a city adjoining Islamabad, had died or been culled as a result of H5N1. "It has been contained and there is no danger of the spread of this virus because there are no poultry farms near this house". Pakistan's first reported cases of H5N1 bird flu were found in chickens in February last year in North West Frontier Province. In all, about 40,000 chickens were culled. There have been no human cases in Pakistan. The two new Indonesian cases came as Jakarta said it had stopped sharing human genetic samples of the most deadly strain of bird flu with foreign laboratories because it wanted to keep control of the intellectual property rights of the H5N1 strain. "We can't share samples for free. There should be rules of the game for it," said the health ministry's spokeswoman, Lily Sulistyowati. "Just imagine they could research, use and patent the Indonesia strain. We can't give the samples but we can share data in the gene bank." Sulistyowati said Indonesia would sign a Memorandum of Understanding with U.S. medical products maker Baxter International on Wednesday to collaborate on making a human bird flu vaccine. "The vaccine is to prevent poultry-to-human infection. That's what we need for the current situation and not for the future pandemic," she said. Baxter confirmed it expected to conclude a "framework for future collaboration" with Indonesia this week, but said it would still abide by World Health Organisation rules on sharing virus samples, the Financial Times newspaper said. No comment was immediately available from Baxter.

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read....is&lang=eng

 

 

 

And 2 more deaths in Indonesia, one from wild bird contact:

 

In Indonesia, which has the highest human bird flu death toll, the latest human case was a girl from an upscale Jakarta neighborhood who had caught a wild bird which died two days later, Joko Suyono of the health ministry's bird flu center said. The other was a West Java man who lived in an area where many poultry had died. Indonesia, where many people keep chickens in their backyards, has had 63 human deaths from the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus, six of them this year.

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read....is&lang=eng

 

 

 

 

And another death in Egypt:

 

An Egyptian girl has died of bird flu, bringing the number of confirmed deaths from the disease in Egypt to 12, a World Health Organisation official said on Monday. "There was a case, 17 years old, from Fayyoum. She tested positive ... Unfortunately, she passed away," said Hassan el-Bushra, regional adviser for communicable diseases surveillance for the World Health Organisation. Bushra said the girl, identified as Nouri Nadi, was believed to have been infected after coming into contact with sick and dead birds. The new case brings to 20 the number of people known to have been infected with bird flu in Egypt, which has the largest known cluster of human cases outside Asia. Twelve have died and eight others have recovered since the virus first surfaced in Egyptian poultry a year ago. Bushra said the girl who died had started showing symptoms of the illness in late January, but initial tests indicated she had seasonal flu. Later tests were positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. Neither Bushra nor the state news agency MENA, which also reported on the death, said when exactly the girl had died. Most people infected in Egypt had been in contact with poultry kept at home. Bird flu initially caused panic across the country and did extensive damage to the poultry industry. The Egyptian government said last month that poultry production had recovered to 1.8 million birds a day, just short of the 2 million produced before the outbreak.

 

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read....is&lang=eng